The cat's away

Look out world, Rick's on the loose! Sarah and the kids are in "The Big Smoke" (Vancouver) all weekend - teaching pre-natal classes and enjoying their grandma respectively - so i am footloose and fancy free.

So what does a 41-year-old dad do when cut loose? Does he break out the cigarettes, whiskey and wild wild women? Well at the risk that my wife and mother will read this, here's the honest truth.

To celebrate the first time without my kids in several months, I spent all afternoon babysitting the neighbour kids. We emptied the garage, including pushing the John Deere that wouldn't start in the cold, then tore down one wall and pulled out all the nails to reclaim the wood. That's right, after finishing basement suites in the last 2 houses and swearing we were Done, it's reno time again - turning the garage into a 300 square foot rental suite. Build our community, make up for my lost income, and provide a much-needed rental space in this beautiful part of the world.

After hanging the laundry on our awesome basement ceiling lines and a typical abandoned-husband dinner of leftover soup and veggie dogs, I watched a video and hit the sack at 9:30. Do I sleep too much? Apparently not enough. Rather than a restless listening-for-the-kids-and reaching-for-my-wife night, I slept dead to the world for 11.5 hours until the phone pierced my slumber at 9am. Bliss.